11 October 2005

BEIRUT: Playful yet serious, romantic yet unflinching, Ahmad al-Khatib and his oud brought politics, art and humanity effortlessly together in music at the Medina Theater here on Saturday evening.

Performing with percussionist and fellow Palestinian Nassir Salameh at a concert organized by Freemuse (an NGO based in Denmark that works on music and censorship around the world) and the Heinrich Boll Foundation to mark the closing of a conference on music and censorship in the Middle East, the Palestinian exile's nimble fret-work mesmerized an audience in sympathy with Khatib's plight.

Born in Jordan to Palestinian refugee parents, Khatib followed studies in music and cello at Yarmouk University in Jordan in 1997 by moving to Palestine where he taught at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM) at Bir Zeit University. He was instrumental in creating Karloma, the ESNCM's resident ensemble and performed numerous concerts in the Occupied Territories and the region. In August 2002, he was forced to leave Palestine and return to Jordan after the Israeli occupation authorities refused to renew his work permit. He currently lives in Sweden where he is obtaining his graduate degree in music.

Perhaps Khatib oud painted such evocative pictures because of the circumstances under which much of the compositions he performed were written - the siege of Ramallah in 2002.

"I wrote the music here ... there in Palestine - the land of blood and wounds - on the sounds of gunshots, the rumbles of bombs and the shrieks of bulldozers," he says.

"While writing, I was also reflecting: "How can I write a note between two tears, and what tune will equate that of a funeral hymn that would console a mourning heart, or an orphan who lost his father or a child that died on her mother's breast?""

And yet Khatib succeeds in doing just that, summoning the anguish - and beauty - of Palestine in the sounds of his oud, all the while complemented with great subtlety by Salameh with cymbals, drums, tamborine and bells attached to his ankles.

Improvising with great skill Khatib's pattern-making strolls back and forth through the modern techniques of the Iraqi school of oud but simultaneously jumps triumphantly forward moving away from that classical style - and Salameh is there on hand when it does with his intricate percussion set-up to pick up the beat at a moment's notice.

Evoking a well of emotion and bringing a standing ovation from the full house, Khatib plucked his oud with impeccable skill, understated virtuosity and an inspired sense of melody on Saturday.

"This is Palestine and these are its stories," says Khatib in the notes to his 2002 album "Sada" or "Resonance." On Saturday Palestine was brought to the Medina.

For more information on Ahmad Al-Khatib see www.birzeit.edu/music. "Sada," produced by the ESNCM

can be purchased online from www.yabous.org and all good record stores.